Druids in Summer
by Princess Regia Al
Summary: Jack & Annie have gone through many adventures, but never with their mysterious friends Ruby, Max & Lulu. Will the five of them be able to save Druid secrects from the British Roman invasion?
1. The reveal

It was a beautiful late summer day in Frog Creek. Jack and Annie were playing tag in their front yard with their friends, Ruby, her brother, Max and Lulu. Suddenly, a meteor dashed across the sky, and landed in the Frog Creek woods.

Jack and Annie looked at each other. They knew what it meant, but how would they excuse themselves? This never happened before!

"Don't worry." Said Ruby, "We know."

Jack and Annie looked surprised, well, Jack certainly did, Annie was more in surprise that Ruby said what she did. "You do?" They asked in unison, in disbelief.

"Yes," answered Lulu, "we know all about the Tree House, and your 55 adventures."

"How?" asked Jack, he couldn't believe it.

"Well, it all stared three years ago, when you two first saw the Tree House." Said Max.

"You remember my twin, Becky, right?" asked Ruby.

"Yeah," answered Annie, "from your birthday and Halloween parties. She was always a kind of fairy."

"Well," said Ruby, "we were playing in the woods that day, and we met Morgan."

"Really?" asked Annie. She had always felt that something was different with Ruby and Lulu, her two Girl Scout friends, and their brother, Max. Actually, Max was Ruby's foster brother, but both girls referred to him as a brother.

"Really. And she recognized us right away, for, me and Becky are half fairy, and have made many accomplishments."

"Many?" Max reprimanded.

"Well, more than our peers." Ruby replied.

Jack and Annie were stunned. "You're half fairy?" asked Jack, quite loudly.

"Not so loud! And yes, I am." Answered Ruby, "But, unfortunately, I won't be getting my wings till I'm 13. It was _supposed_ to be when I was 16, but we," she pointed to Max and Lulu, "Becky, Lucía, Alice and the Bird Sisters rescued the Fairy Princesses, Glimmer and Shimmer. By the way, my real name's Rita." Lucía was Lulu's twin, who was always in a wheelchair. Alice was Max's older sister and Rita's foster sister.

Lulu continued her sibling's explanation, "The Bird Sisters were never wearing great costumes. They were cursed to be part bird."

This took awhile to sink in. Then Annie broke the silence. "Any other surprises?"

"Yes," confessed Lulu, "I'm half mermaid, but I won't get my tail till I'm 13. It was supposed to be at 16. The reason, same as Rita."

"And me and Alice are Honorary Fairies." Confessed Max.

"And," continued Rita, "Morgan placed a spell on me and Becky, so that we _always_ know about your adventures. It's like, someone's narrating it and we can hear it. It's third person, but mainly through Jack's perception."

"Really?" asked Jack. He kind of felt his privacy was invaded somehow.

"Yes. We'll explain more later, you've got a mission to do." Said Rita.

"Would you guys like to come with us?" asked Annie.

"Annie!" exclaimed Jack.

Their eyes widened. "Really?" they asked in unison.

"Really. Come on, Jack, please?" said Annie.

The look on Annie's pleading face was hard to ignore. "Ok." Said Jack reluctantly.

"Yay!" exclaimed everyone, except Jack.

After getting his backpack from house, Jack told his parents that he, Annie and their friends were going to the woods.


	2. Romans?

The woods seemed different with Rita, Max and Lulu. It somehow seemed less special. Well, that's how Jack felt. Annie seemed to love it. She enjoyed company, more the merrier.

They walked to the tallest oak in the woods, where the Tree House stood, waiting for them. They couldn't see or hear anyone inside, so the five of them climbed up the rope ladder.

When they went inside, they saw Morgan wearing a red & blue robe. "Hello, friends." She opened her arms.

"Morgan!" exclaimed Jack & Annie, as they ran towards her and hugged her.

"What's our new mission?" asked Jack.

"Well," Morgan said as she looked at Rita, Max & Lulu, "now that you've brought your magical friends, and you all have bravely proven yourselves, Merlin and I think that it's time to send you on more challenging missions."

"More challenging?" Rita asked, "What could be more challenging than being rescue agents in World War 2?"

"Or mushers in a whiteout?" Lulu added.

"As you'll see," Morgan replied, "you're next mission will be more challenging, and might be more or less dangerous."

"And what is that mission?" Jack nervously asked. He barley noticed that, Rita seemed distant, as if she was secretly using her powers on her siblings.

"You are to go to the isle of Anglesey, in the year, 60 A.D." Morgan declared.

"Anglesey?" Max asked, in disbelief, "In the year 60 AD?"

"Yes." Morgan answered.

"Didn't the Romans _invade_ Anglesey that year to wipe out the Druids?" Lulu asked in equal disbelief as Max.

"Yes, that's exactly why I'm sending you there."

 _"Morgan must be insane!"_ Jack thought. He learned how harsh & brutal Roman soldiers could be.

"Why did the Romans want to wipe out the druids?" Annie asked.

Morgan gave a sigh, "Unfortunately, the Romans thought that they stood in their way of conquering Britain, since the native people held them in such high regard."

"Yes, weren't they the peacemakers & holymen of the Celts." Rita asked.

"Yes, they were."

"What are Celts?" Annie asked.

"They were the native people of Britain. They had tribes all over Britain and parts of Europe." Jack answered. "They were so good at conquering territory that, some say they even went to Asia, and there's even proof."

"Wow." Annie breathed.

"Yes, wow." Morgan replied. "And your mission, is to rescue some of the mystical Druids, and their secrets, before they're lost forever." She handed them a book that read, _The ancient Druids_.

Rita was about to speak, but before she could, Annie flipped through pages until she came to a page about Angelsey. She pointed to the page and said, "I wish we could go there.

The tree house started to spin.

It spun faster & faster.

Then everything was still.

Absolutely still.


	3. The Glade (Updated)

Jack opened his eyes, he found it odd that he closed them like on the earlier missions. He looked down at his cloths, he was wearing the tunic he wore when he & Annie went to Pompeii & ancient Greece, but he was also wearing a yellow and brown stripped shirt underneath, as well as tan pants. He was grateful for the pants.

He looked around the Tree House, Morgan was gone. Annie too wore the tunic she wore in Pompeii, but she wore a yellow underdress with brown stripes. The others were more elaborately dressed. Rita wore a blue tunic with gold trim and a green gold-trimmed underdress. Lulu wore a light blue tunic with gold-trim, and two gold-trimed underdresses. One was shorter than the other, and was sea green, the longer one was blue. Max was dressed similar to Jack, but his tunic was blue and long sleeved.

"Why are you guys better dressed than us?" Jack asked.

They shrugged their shoulders. "If you want some fancy embroidery, we can help." Lulu suggested.

" _You_ two do the embroidery, I can't, remember?" Max said.

"Yes you can." Rita replied.

"No, I can sew, but that's it."

"That's ok." Jack replied. Then he mumbled, "I was just curious."

"I honestly don't mind." Annie replied.

Then they all looked out the window. The treehouse had landed in a glade. They were in the central tree. Jack couldn't quite place it, but there was something magical about it.

"I feel it too." Rita said to Jack.

"Feel what?" The vision impaired brunette asked.

"The magic." The strawberry-blonde answered, "You can't quite place it, but you feel something magical about this glade."

"How did you know that?"

"I told you, I know about your adventures. It's like, someone's narrating it and I can hear it."

"Oh, yeah."

"I have a question," Annie asked, "why is it only from Jack's perception?"

Rita shrugged her shoulders. Jack grabbed their research book, and flipped to a page. He read aloud:

 **Very little is known about the ancient druids. They left no written accounts of themselves, and the only evidence are a few descriptions left by Greek, Roman, and various scattered authors and artists, as well as stories created by later medieval writers and archaeological evidence.**

"Well, guess we know _why_ we have to rescue them," Annie said, "besides to save them from total destruction from the Romans."

"Yeah." Max said, "We should go."

"Wait," Rita said, "since we're in Roman-Britain, or Britannia," she unbound her hair, letting it fall to the Treehouse floor. She and Lulu's hair was about six feet long. Rita recited a spell in a voice so quiet that Jack couldn't hear it. Soon, her hair was braiding itself and wrapping around her head, some of it dangled down.

"Wow." Jack and Annie breathed. Rita _was_ magic.

"Told you so." Rita sing-songed. Then she headed down the rope ladder.

"I'm fine with my hair the way it is." Lulu said, then she followed her sister.

The rest followed, Max was the last to go down. When Jack reached the bottom, he realized how even more beautiful the place was. He looked at Max. He was surprised to see a pair of corn-yellow butterfly-wings at his back.

Rita and Lulu gasped. "We're in a Fairy Glade!"

"A what?" Annie asked.

"A Fairy Glade." Rita answered. "It's a part of the Mortal World that is like Fairyland."

"That's why this place feels magical." Annie replied.

"Yeah." Jack replied.

A look of realization hit Lulu. "I just thought of something." She said.

"A thick braid isn't Roman, or Roman-Britain, or Celtic?" Max replied.

"No." Lulu shot back. "I mean, we're going to rescue the Druids. That means going against the _Romans_!"

"So?"

"So," Lulu replied, "they're a fighting _machine._ And we're just Meties, not to mention that Jack and Annie only know _basic_ self-defense."

"Uh, we _did_ learn some stuff from ninjas and Basho." Annie interjected.

"Yeah, like, for about a day each." Lulu responded.

"What are you saying?" Jack asked.

"You two need a crash course in fighting." Lulu answered. "We'll teach you."

"We will?" Max asked.

"But what about the mission?" Jack asked.

"What about having the necessary skills?" Lulu shot back. "The Romans are _ruthless_! Remember when you went to Pompeii? And you almost entered a Gladiator fight?"

Jack and Annie both nodded.

"To the Romans, live brutality, involving murder and animal abuse is _entertaining_."

"How's that different from the world today?" Max asked.

"That's besides the point." Lulu answered.

"So, what are we going to do?" Annie asked, wanting to get on with their mission and to avoid conflict.

"Simple." Lulu pulled out what looked like a wooden sword, from her arm. Jack and Annie's jaws dropped. What had been a tattoo, was actually a sword! While Jack and Annie stared in shock, Lulu muttered a spell and the sword duplicated itself. "Catch." Lulu said as she tossed the clone to Jack.

Jack was too stunned to actually catch the wooden weapon. He only noticed it when it was too late, and got hit in the chest.

"Good thing it wasn't on." Rita stated.

"What do you mean by 'on'?" Annie asked.

"When a Practice Weapon's 'Off'," Rita explained, "it's just like a normal piece of wood. But when it's 'On', it's like a real weapon, but it doesn't leave a mark."

"What do you mean?" Jack asked.

"If it goes into you," Max explained, "you feel it, but the only evidence that it was there is the pain, which goes away when the offending weapon's turned off again."

"Ok."

"Now that that's out of the way," Lulu said, "Let's get started."

"I don't have a sword." Annie stated.

"Don't worry." Rita replied. And she did the same thing as Lulu did.

"Yay." Annie exclaimed.

The rest of the day was Rita, Max and Lulu giving Jack and Annie a crash course in fighting.

* * *

Jack felt sore all over. He and Annie had spent hours sword training and brushing up on what they had learned at Scouts and karate lessons at the community center. Also, they all spent the night sleeping in the tree house, using the many books as beds.

"Waiting for you to get up." Rita said.

"We were going to wake you, but you looked so peaceful." Lulu said.

Jack looked around. Everyone was already awake, although Max looked really sleepy.

"Is it still morning?" Jack asked.

"Yes." Rita answered, "According to the sun's position, I say it's about 7."

"7?"

"Yeah, now come on!" Annie said, "We've got a mission to complete. You're always nagging on _me_ to get going."

"Not _always_." Jack protested.

"Seems like it."

Jack rolled his eyes. Then, one by one, they all climbed down the rope ladder.

"So, what's the plan?" Jack asked.

"Find the Druids, and bring them back to Camelot." Annie answered.

"I know _that_." Jack replied, "But how will we _find_ the Druids?"

"Well, we're in a Fairy Glade." Rita said, "So, we ask the glade."

"Ask the glade?" Jack and Annie asked at the same time. Jack was a little skeptical, while Annie had a hint of joy in her voice.

"Sure." Max said, "Magic can do anything. Even defy logic."

"How do we ask the Glade?" Annie asked.

"First we all need to be in a circle." Rita answered, motioning for a circle to be formed. Once they were in a circle, Rita continued, "Now we join hands and ask as one."

"What?" Jack asked.

"We _all_ want to know, right?" Rita said to Jack.

"Yeah." Jack replied.

"So we _all_ need to ask." Rita grabbed Lulu and Max's hands, and he grabbed Annie's. Annie then grabbed Jack's then he grabbed Lulu's. He noticed that the mermaid blushed a little.

Jack watched as Rita, Lulu & Max took a deep breath and close their eyes. Annie copied them. Then Jack decided to do the same.

Soon, a slight buzz filled the five pre-teens. Then Jack felt the ground beneath him come alive.

 _Look around._ A voice said inside Jack's mind.

Actually it's in everyone's mind. Jack heard Rita say in his head. Jack's eyes grew wide. Don't worry, it's just telepathy.

Jack suppressed his nerves and looked around with the others. What he saw took his breath away. There was a sparkly path leading from them to the out of the Grove.

"Thank you, Grove." Rita, Lulu and Max said at once.

"Yes, thank you." Annie said.

"Uh, Thanks." Jack said.

 _Ur welcome._

Then, they all headed down the path.


End file.
